Ch. 42: Dark Day Continues
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO:
I didn’t let Sean take me home. I needed something, and he wasn’t it. Instead I sat in the grass after school outside with Ally. She kept holding my hand or putting her hand on my shoulder, different things - to let me know that she was there for me. I still hadn’t been able to say a thing since running into Vance. And my hands shook too badly when I tried to write or text. So I sat there, replaying the horror of being so violated in this place that I loved so much. I went over and over every second of it, and tried to figure out why I hadn’t been able to fight back, but I came away with nothing. Ally sat with me patiently, as she had been during lunch and Trigonometry, in her comforting way. She had held my hand tightly and gotten everyone to leave me alone when Sean had dug more and more, asking endless questions trying to learn what had happened.
The bus pulled up to the curb and I got on with Ally. The two of us sitting in my unofficially reserved spot. I had almost forgotten about my sprain. I probably pushed it too much today with my running. But it wasn’t like I had had much of a choice. Who knows what would have happened if I hadn’t taken the opportunity to push him and run. The thought made my shudder. Ally still looked worried and I wish I could’ve been able to communicate what happened to me. But I was stuck. At first I thought I was somehow unaware of the deep fear of Vance’s threat to hurt people I told, and that that was why I hadn’t been able to say anything. But after some time I had tried to explain to Ally but all I could do was open my mouth. That was all. It was like being right back there again and it rattled me to my bones.
After some time Ally got off and the bus continued on. Jake and the guys weren’t on board with football season in high gear now, they would be taking the evening bus that left hours later. I felt sad when I remembered that on the drive. I pulled out my phone to try to at least send him a message. Not necessarily about today’s moment, but about anything. Our last exchanged message was from this morning. He had acted so strangely on the drive to school, and I thought for sure he was going to say something important to me before I got off. But he hadn’t. I had watched him wrestle with some idea in his mind for a while, and so when I had to get off I had written him a quick text asking if he was okay. He had written back that he would be and thanked me for asking.
<< From Rachel to Jake >>: Hope your day was better than mine
I breathed out a long slow breath. For some reason that had been way easier than the other times I had tried to say anything today.
<< From Jake to Rachel >>: I’m calling you later. I want the whole story, Killer.
I must’ve caught him at a good time for such a quick response, and I already felt a little more at ease hearing from him. I wondered though, would I be able to explain what had happened?
Ally ~
Not the best day for Kyle to disappear on us. I felt like something other was to blame for Rachel’s hysterics at lunch. There was something on her, near her face, that made her bone structure more gaut. Like she had the face of someone who hadn’t eaten in weeks. But I knew with the angle I was seeing it that told me it wasn’t how she appeared to others, to humans. I had sent Kyle a text after getting Sean to buzz off and cool down elsewhere. But I hadn’t heard back.
We had talked quite a lot over the last few days. He hadn’t met other witches or halflings before but did have a lot of knowledge about the magical world. He told me he was a ‘lower’ fae, and explained some of the main fae races which was really interesting to learn about. Lower fae generally specialized in one very specific type of magic, and while ‘lower’ made it sound like they weren’t powerful, it was really the opposite. The term came from some old ways of thinking. Just because a fae could only do one type of magic, didn’t mean that they weren’t as powerful as ‘high fae’. It’s just that ‘high fae’ could do nearly all types of magic.
Kyle was what they called a Dream Walker. He grew power from the dreaming of people around him and people he knows. As they sleep they recharge him, and he was able to use his abilities to do different things related to sleep. He could calm people into dreams if they were having nightmares, he could relax an awake person to the point where they would fall asleep. He could force someone to wake up if they were dreaming, and he could of course view dreams and nightmares of others. He could even have sway on the content of dreams - he could push the dreamer to dream about something in particular. As he grew stronger he would be able to interact with others in sleep states, show up as himself or something else and interact with the dreamer themselves.
<< From Ally to Kyle >>: Kyle, seriously, please call me ASAP. We’ve got trouble
It was my third text of the day. I needed to get his help with this. Something was seriously wrong.
I had no resources or anyone else to ask. I was stuck. Kyle was going to use his dreaming to help me find other witches or halflings, a coven even. They would be a great resource for all of these kinds of things, but for now there was no one. And it frustrated me to no end that I couldn’t do anything of real help for Rachel.
*** Mine. Mine. Mine! What was it that she couldn’t understand? Why did she insist on staying away from me? She needed to be with me, and only me, and if I needed to get rid of everyone else - all those other distractions - then that’s what had to be done. I spent a few hours running the track around my home trying to burn off some energy, but only managed to run while leaving scorch marks behind me from my raging footprints. ***
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